Designating Giro d'Italia leaders at Team Sky seems as ill-fated as hiring drummers at Spinal Tap. Last year Bradley Wiggins endured a nightmarish opening 10 days before heading for home, while this year his successor, Richie Porte, was withdrawn due to illness and the man who might have taken over from Porte, Peter Kennaugh, succumbed earlier this week. The early months of 2014 have been mixed ones for the British team and they arrive here with a squad that lacks a true contender for the pink jersey.

One man's curse is another's blessing, however. The flip side of Sky's highly structured successes in the Tour de France is that the template means there are fewer openings at the team for riders who are not grand tour specialists. Porte's absence from the Giro meant a call up for the Yorkshireman Ben Swift, who is enjoying a fine run of form this season that has included third place in the opening Classic of the year, Milan-San Remo, and a stage win in the Tour of the Basque Country from an elite group largely composed of climbers.

The 26-year-old is the kind of all-rounder – not a pure sprint specialist while lacking the engine to be a grand tour domestique – who struggles to find a role at Sky, and he knows the Giro offers openings in the hilly Italian terrain when the faster but far heavier sprinters such as Marcel Kittel of Germany will get left behind. In his days at the Great Britain academy in Tuscany, Swift thrived on Italian racing and he came close to a Giro stage win on his first day at the race in 2009.

"The biggest goal has to be to win a stage, I've come close so that has to be realistic," he says. "With that comes the red [points] jersey, if I'm in a position to make it an objective."

Swift will target certain specific stages when many of the other sprinters are likely to be weeded out over the climbs, but also has his eyes on the flatter, more conventional sprint days such as Saturday's finish in Belfast and Sunday's run south to Dublin.

"It will be tough with Kittel there, I'm not a pure sprinter but I get involved because I enjoy them. The sprint stages are well spread out so I can get involved in those and see how it goes, but recover to target the hillier days."

On paper, Swift likes the look of stage seven from Frosinone to Foligno, and the longest stage in the race, the 11th, to Savona, but cautions that the latter will be particularly suited to a breakaway.

Swift will be just one of several options for Sky. While Dario Cataldo and Kanstantsin Siutsou will try for a high placing overall, the hugely talented Edvald Boasson Hagen– who seems likely to leave Sky at the end of the season – will have a roving brief to target stages where escapes stand a good chance of success.

These are the same hilly stages that will favour Swift in a sprint finish but the Yorkshireman believes they can work together. "The team we've got here is one that thrive off those opportunities that don't come round very often at Sky, and Edvald is similar to me," he says. "We're honest with each other so when one of us isn't feeling great, the other can have a go."

Further into the future, another goal has begun to play on Swift's mind after his strong ride at San Remo, the longest classic on the calendar. "San Remo was a race that I knew would suit me because of the climbs towards the end, but this year if I'm in the same condition as this spring it sounds like the world championships could be an option. I've heard it's hard and we've got no one in Great Britain who is more suited to that kind of terrain. I've been talking about it to Rod Ellingworth [the GB manager] and it could be a good opportunity for me."